This invention relates to an ultrasound system and method for processing data. In particular, the method and system provide for processing, transferring, and storing ultrasound data, control data, and other information.
Ultrasound systems acquire, process, and store acoustic information. The acoustic information is used to generate various types of images and other data. Typically, ultrasound imaging systems include several dedicated data processing structures, including one or more digital signal processors (DSP) for processing the acoustic data and one or more microprocessors for system control. The control microprocessors provide control instructions to the data processing structures. The control instructions are generated in response to operating system software, user interface input, and other communication and control software. One or more separate memory blocks provide bulk storage for CINE operations, storing acoustic data generated by the various data processing structures. The memory blocks are designed to support the specific volume and bandwidth of the real time data stored in and retrieved from them. A separate memory is used for storing the microprocessor software. As a result, the microprocessors do not have direct and efficient access to acoustic data during real time operation of the ultrasound system, and many different memories are required.
Another example of the separation of memories is the use of various display refresh memory planes for generating an image. Ultrasound systems typically employ separate display refresh memory planes for each of combination control information, text and graphics information, waveform information, and image information. The stored information is output from each of these memories at a constant rate to update and refresh the display. Due to different reconstruction and display requirements for the different types of data, the refresh memory planes are separated. Text and graphics information is generally constructed by a microprocessor and written into the text and graphics refresh memory plane. Image and waveform data are generally constructed by some combination of dedicated hardware and DSP processing. The image and waveform data are then stored in their respective memory planes. The output from the refresh memory planes is combined and displayed.
One example of an ultrasound system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,222 (the ""222 patent). The ""222 patent describes various models for reconstructing an acoustic image using inverse scattering techniques. Beginning at column 19, line 14, the system for generating the acoustic image is described. The system includes a CPU and an array processor to control the electronic system in accordance with the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6A-6F. At lines 25-28, the disclosure notes that xe2x80x9cspecial purpose computational hardware should be constructed to incorporate the flow diagrams of FIGS. 6A-6F.xe2x80x9d The appendix of the ""222 patent discloses a program to solve the inverse scattering models by the array processor. The CPU""s control of the system to solve the inverse scattering models is then described with reference to FIGS. 6A-6F.
Some ultrasound systems combine various memory structures and processing structures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,125 discloses two multi-processors for processing acoustic data. The multi-processors share a memory. The memory is accessed through a cross-bar. One multi-processor receives acoustic data and partially processes the data. The partially processed data is stored in the shared memory. The other multi-processor obtains the partially processed data and completes the processing.
Multi-processors are used in systems other than ultrasound systems. For example, multi-processors are used in personal computing. Various multi-processors are known, such as Pentium Pro(copyright), Pentium II(copyright), and other 686 class microprocessors that support multi-processing, and that use single instruction multiple data processing. For use with graphics intensive computers, interface devices such as the Intel(copyright) Accelerated Graphics Port chip set are used to provide high speed interactions between graphic accelerators, multi-processors and memories.
The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims. By way of introduction, the preferred embodiment described below includes an apparatus and method for processing ultrasound data. The apparatus includes an interface operatively connected to a memory, a processor, a source of acoustic data (such as a data bus) and a system bus. The memory stores data from the processor, ultrasound data from the source, and data from the system bus. The processor has direct access to the memory. In another embodiment, the system bus has direct access to the memory.
In other embodiments, a memory stores both ultrasound data and various of: beamformer control data, instruction data for the processor, display text plane information, control plane data, and a table of memory addresses.
Other embodiments are possible. Further aspects and advantages of the invention are discussed below in conjunction with the preferred embodiments.